ORPHANS, THIEVES & CLOWNS
It started on the day I turned fifteen, birthdays were a big deal at Lady Liu´s Home for Orphaned Children, never for good reasons, getting older was a dreadful thing. One year older, one year closer to whatever happens to children who stopped being children under Lady Liu's care. I was hoping no one would bring it up.
The day was grey, the morning wind blew violently on the broken windows, I shivered under the scratchy yellowed sheets and thin mattress, feeling the wooden floor on my back as I got up. Lady Liu received huge coin bags from the town to take care of the damned children, scavengered from war-ruined villages and was proud to say she provided us Stellar Care. That is to say: she packed the house with children and kept most of the money to herself.
Meals were had in the kitchen, an enormous clay pot everburning on the fire, a smell of something sour that was worse and stronger, as me and the other unlucky children made the way from a hot and crowded room to a hotter and crowded kitchen. We were an evergrowing group, orphans are a dime a dozen in a hundred year war. The kitchen was downstairs, the fire burned bright, hot and made me sweaty and sticky
I hear the biting sound of giggles behind me and although I don´t want to give them the satisfaction of looking, I do. At the end of the line to breakfast, there they were, my taunters: Naran, Osha and Rao. Every group has it´s bad apples and at Lady Liu`s Home for orphaned children, we had those three.
Naran gave me a mean wave and sly smile, her small face and pitch black eyes, her boney hands, we were all on the skinnier side but Naran was skeletal and short. Rao was an ugly boy too tall for his age, which was unknown to me, and poor Osha with her long dark braid and half of her body covered in burn scars. She is far from the only one.
I pour myself a bowl of watered down rice porridge. Stellar care, see? And I sit by myself at the foremost corner of the long, low table. Soon, the little kids start waking up and bring all their joyful nonsense downstairs. They sit whatever they like and take as much space as they see fit. I’m glad for the space it brings me. The rice porridge is thin and bland, grainy and it used to make me sick to my stomach when i was younger, it’s less worse when served boiling and eaten so fast you barely taste it.
“Everyone!”, I hear Naran’s sickly-sweet voice laced with poison, “Did you guys wish our friend Aliyah a happy birthday yet? She’s turning fifteen today!”
The smallest children, about six or eight cheered for me, they had no idea it was not a matter of celebration and more of waves of dread. More like not knowing what would happen when my time was up. Was it this year? Or the next? I allowed their excitement to distract me.
“Aliyah!”, a voice called me, Gi, “Happy Birthday!”, the small girl beamed at me, her front teeth missing.
“Thanks.”, Gi always made me smile.
Familiar footsteps make familiar sounds, the clack-clack of expensive shoes on the circular staircase.
“What’s the commotion about?” Lady Liu’s slurred voice echoed in the kitchen like threats, she was no stranger to imposing quietness with hands-on means, to put it very lightly.
“It's dear Aliya’s birthday”, Naran announced and Lady Liu’s hazy eyes focused on me, cutting me down to tiny pieces.
“How old, girl?”, Lady Liu’s coughs out,
“Fifteen”, I answered quickly and straight, Lady Liu nodded and I didn't miss the curling of her lips. She retracts, I try to focus on talking my bowl to the washing area.
“Aliyah.”, Lady Liu demanded, “Go fetch some water from the river.”
The river in question was a stream a short walk from the house, there was no saying no to Lady Liu. I leave the kitchen, climbing up the stairs. There’s no more morning wind, the white sky blinds me and the heat is suffocating.
But the few trees are so lovely, the canyons stretching ahead, endless in their formation, the heights and the falls, the quiet humming of the streams. I carried the bucket in one hand, skipping on stone after stone. It was in that place where I found the most peace, feeling the wind in my air, on my ragged clothes and holed shoes. There, listening to the soft hum of the river.
The gentle stream was always about to dry out, the coolness of the water greeted my barefeet, I scooped out my bucket. Washing my limbs and hair, we barely got baths, wasting our way in filth. I stare at my image in the mirrored river, my greyish eyes, my long, unruly curls, I never met my parents. I have no idea of where that face comes from.
Carrying water is bitter work, a lot heavier then it seems and the walk back to house makes a lot of ups and downs. Washing the dishes is worse, the freezing and the dirt and the bothersome soap. I’m happy to skip that part any day.
I saw the angular and tilted roofs of the house, entering I briefly could see the inside of Lady Liu’s office, she was smoking a pipe and writing something. I caught her angry eyes, Lady Liu got up and closed the door.
Downstairs was as hot as ever, the pyre for an oven and the smell of rice and clay. I carefully let down the bucket, as not to spill.
“You should really watch yourself, Aliyah”, Naran’s overly sweet voice grates me once more, “You’re getting older, older and more useless”
“Big talk for someone who’s almost my age.”
I must have hit something soft and hurtful, Naran stops smiling and her feet tremble the bucket, splashing water all around with a sudden and calculated move, the water pools on the floor of the kitchen. Naran walked away upstairs, disappearing. I fell to my knees. Happy Birthday Aliyah. It was only about to get worse.
The day wasted into an airless night. Even with the windows open there was not a single breeze entering the dark room, the sound of sleep, the light snoring. Someone shook me. The cute face of Gi was twisted into a worried expression.
“Go back to bed, Gi.”, I turned my back to the little girl.
“No, Aliyah, it’s serious. You have to see this.” Gi shakes a roll of parchment on my face.
“Where did you find that?”
“Lady Liu’s office”, the little mischief bit back a giggle.
Lady Liu was writing to some Earth Kingdom official. Something about whether he found use for the last children she sent him and that he might have to receive a new shipment next week. Next shipment…So that’s where she was sending the children? Not the streets but somewhere that seemed far more malicious. Nothing was clear from the letter but I felt boulders dropping in my stomach.
The urge to run away took over me like a caged bird. I had to go, and I had to go fast. Go where? I had nowhere to go and the orphanage was the only home I've ever known, I had no idea what the world was like beyond our canyons and streams and endless sky. There was no family to return to, there was no familiar face to search. There would only be the road. And it was either the road or the butcher?
That night I climbed through the window with only a hastily packed bag with the few things I had, my face meeting the warm air outside and the rest of me in a panicked state, first walking as quietly as possible to make it far enough from the house so I wouldn’t be seen running. And run I did. Like never before, the wind whipping back my flyaway hairs.
I stepped outside that night to disappear and it turns out I was pretty good at that. Like a common, unremarkable animal I meshed well, going from village to village, scrapping just enough to make it to the next town. Heading east to nowhere.
No food, a measly sum of water, my whole unfortunate life on my back. I was three days on the road when I first had the feeling I was being followed. A starry sky above me lightened the shadow just enough so I could see the unmistaken shape of a hooded man. I did not sleep that night. The feeling of trappedness, of clowns closing in on me. I found myself looking back at the trail, not taking detours, and trying to keep my breath steading. I could sense his presence.
I was so tired by day five, ready to take my chances with my stalker when I saw the draught-taken valley and the small town hidden in it. I noticed in my short travels that the towns were only getting smaller and poorer and drier. My empty stomach missed that disgusting porridge Lady Liu served and my thirst longed for the stream.
First things first. I needed to eat, in the almost ghostly village there was only one place where anyone would be selling food. A small teashop on what one day would have been a main street. It was fairly full by decrepit -old-dying village standards. Old people and wounded young men. I took a seat in the back of the room, happy to be shielded from the sun for once.
Clearly being on the road, vulnerable to natural and men’s attacks robbed my wit because what was I even thinking? I had no means to pay for food, it was only a matter of time before they kicked me out, fairly so even. An older man tossed a tray with water and a bowl of food my way.
“I know,” the older man sighed, “He did”, and pointed at the hooded figure sitting by the door, his hood not lifted but some of my stalker revealed. He was an archer, carrying a bow and arrow with him. He waved and I was far too tired and far too hungry to protest it.
The rice was soft and full of blessings, the water was cooling down my throat and when I looked up from my meal he was gone, gone as if he was never there. Except, I caught a brief sight of a bundle of arrows tied to a shoulder on the outside of the window.
Much less to say I sprinted to my feet and out of the tea house, the man peered at me and picked up his speed, crossing empty streets and in fast motions.
He ran, I ran too. He climbed up a roof, I followed. Far too curious about someone who was now my stalker and my savior but seemed to have an interest in talking to me. He was much better than me, jumping impossibly high. I felt my legs shake with every attempt to copy him and yet, I did it. I jumped and ran and pursued him till the edge of town.
My chaser turned around and pointed his bow at me, a single arrow flew in my direction, before I could think about it, my arms closed, my arms tried to shield as I braced for an impact that never came.
“You should open your eyes.”, he said with a surprisingly youthful tone, so I did.
The arrow was gently flying right in front of me, suspended in the air.
“How are you doing this?”
I brought my hands down and the arrow hit the ground.
